geez blog

After many years of taking second place to the United Church Observer, Geez magazine won top honours for general excellence at the Canadian Church Press convention in May this year. We received a total of six awards, including an additional first place awards for layout and design of an issue. Way to go, Geez team! – Aiden Enns, editor.

First Place
General Excellence – Denominational and Interdenominational Magazine

We’re tired of being domestic, so in this issue we’ll explore the wild side. One response to the ills of civilization is to go feral. Learn from the animals and our innate selves. What wisdom is missing from our rational lives? Could this be the locusts and honey issue? You tell us.

Slagging on the Olympics is a good way to make people think you’re a kook. Nobody likes a party pooper, especially one at a worldwide pageantry that’s bringing 82 nations together in peaceful competition. It’s definitely not in keeping with the nebulous concept of “Olympic Spirit,” which is, let’s face it, only rich in sentiment.

Nevertheless, such sentiment serves as a convenient rallying cry for corporations that stand to profit from the rapacious development of Olympic venues and public consumption of events, schwag and advertisements. It’s a feel-good moneymaker. Read the rest of this entry »

Hi, I’m thrilled to announce that Miriam Meinders will be the guest Features Editor for Geez 18. See her call for pitches below. Also note the call for submissions for other sections of the magazine. – Aiden Enns, editor.

Call for pitches: The Body Issue

We all have a body. It is home to our self, the amazing site of our sensations, a piece of the material world which we alone inhabit. But if the body is uniquely ours, it is also subject to forces beyond our control, be they biological and physical – birth, growth, illness, accidents, death, and decay – or political, geographic, economic, and technological. Read the rest of this entry »

That is the phrase that will chime through the streets, Feb 14th in central park. Rev. Billy and his gospel choir are at it again. This time they are inviting married couples to unmarry. Ditch the vows. Shed the rings. No marriage until all can marry.

A mass ceremony, conducted by Rev. Billy himself, will unmarry those who are standing up for the rights of the gay community. Is this really official? I don’t know if you can actually unmarry, but who says you are married anyways? Or what defines marriage since it varies from culture to culture and religion to religion? It seems unconvincing that by a simple ceremony you are deemed fit to cohabit until death, produce offspring, receive certain tax breaks and share toothpaste.

My cousin and her partner are sincerely committed to each other, have lived together for ten years and have never participated in any sort of ceremony that declares them legally married. Then there are those who have grand ceremonies declaring their commitment and love for each other and they don’t make it past raised toilette seats and maxed-out visa cards. If a ceremony is so trivial in both these instances why is it being withheld from same-sex couples?

Unlike Canada, there are still states in our neighbor country where gay marriage is illegal. For details about same-sex marriage in the U.S. see here. Same-sex marriage has been legal everywhere in Canada since July, 2005.

I don’t know what I think of the whole thing as you can see from the scads of question marks. If you are like me and have more questions than answers you can check out freedomtomarry.org and see what questions they are answering. – megan kamei, editorial assistant

I asked Aiden what his thoughts were and here is what he said:

I like the references to your cousin and other attitudes to the marriage ceremony, but I’m left with the feeling that you think it’s just a ceremony and not a powerful institution of control: of men over women, of dominant culture over those who don’t choose partners of the opposite sex. I look at how institutions attain, retain and abuse power. In the case of the institution of marriage, it’s a very tangible expression of the “family values” that are so problematic for many people. Feminists, women who suffer, singles, childless couples, men who don’t identify as heterosexual, young people who are dating: each of these (and other) important groups of people are invited (often coerced) into conformity, at the cost of their humanity and the loss of diversity in our community. – Aiden Enns, editor

Have questions about the church? I know I do. Is the church really living up to the example Jesus gave? I don’t have all the answers, heck no one has all the answers. But a good starting point is to start talking about it. Roy Peters, a friend of Geez, is doing just that. Read on to hear some of his thoughts on church. – megan kamei, editorial assistant

“So, what do you do?” As a late twenty-something I get asked this question by the load. I always infer that the questioner wants me to divulge something beyond, I exist or I make peanut butter sandwiches before bed. They’re after my profession – my remunerative contribution to society, which is a giant window into my identity as a person.

I’m pleased to welcome a new editorial intern, Chris Paetkau, to the Geez pool of workers. He’s in his final year in the Creative Communications program at Red River Community College. A freelance writer and resident of Winnipeg, he said he’s currently working on his “first rhyming novella.”

His work includes research for the upcoming issue of Geez on the topic of work, writing for the Geez blog, and collecting material for future issues. Welcome aboard, Chris! – Aiden Enns, editor.

When I was in the Geez office a couple of weeks ago I asked Aiden why he was a vegetarian. His answer included nutrition, compassion and something about connectedness. It got me thinking about eating meat. The more I thought about it the more my chicken drumstick became unappetizing. Meat was grossing me out and I grew up on a cattle farm. What would my parents say? Read the rest of this entry »

All I wanted to do was get some groceries, a bite to eat and then head back to the Geez office for a board meeting. I had conquered the grocery-getting and was working on satisfying the rumbling in my stomach when my oh-so-simple plan was interrupted.

Yesterday at Safeway an older woman in a navy windbreaker, sweatpants, neon skirt and torn sneakers shuffled her way around the tables by the Starbucks station. She held out her hand that contained a quarter and a dime to a guy enjoying a coffee and a newspaper. He looked up at her with wide eyes and then furrowed brow as he tried to make out her slurred words and muffled sounds. He soon looked back at his newspaper and the woman became invisible.